Who do you speak to and what do you speak about?
I speak to a primarily female audience of all ages and stages as we like to say–teenagers up to senior citizens well into their golden years.
My speaking partner came up with the very creative moniker, Faith and Four Letter Words, and it describes two women who left television news–in my case–after decades of being led by faith to exit the industry, and in her case, frustration and a lot of four letter words thrown in.
Collectively we have about four decades in the “Boys Club,” so to speak, of television news, so we just like to impart some of the lessons learned to inspire, empower, and encourage women of all ages to find their voice and don’t apologize for using it.
What was happening or not happening in your speaking business that made you say, “I gotta do The Speaker Lab.”
I had years as a public speaker by way of being a news anchor, but I really was unsure of how to navigate that transition to taking the stage and being more of an in-person, engaging, public-facing presenter.
So having The Speaker Lab come alongside me, hold my hand and really give me that nudge that I needed was invaluable because it just affirmed that I had a lot of the skill sets and The Speaker Lab allowed me to scale them.
When you were making that transition and joining the program, did you have any fears or apprehensions that you had to overcome?
I did. I think as women, especially when we age into the 40s and 50s, you have that imposter syndrome that can creep in where you say, I’m doubting my capability to take on and pursue these career pivots.
And I felt like The Speaker Lab affirmed to me that there are so many like-minded people at different stages of their journey.
It was just nice to have that cohort of others that were walking in my shoes, and it did give me a level of comfortability to know I’m not alone.
Community is so huge. There’s something about having a bunch of people around you pursuing the same thing and dealing with the same fears, but overcoming them together. Well, what were some of your aha moments or key takeaways that stuck out to you as you did The SPEAK Framework?
I got to work with Michelle and she was a perfect match because she is somebody who also is in that faith-based space. I really felt that it was sort of a God-led partnership because she understood what I felt was a calling that far surpassed maybe a traditional “I just want to be on stage.”
It was more like pursuing a passion that for me was so faith-oriented. I loved that she had a similar story, a similar drive, and then also was so affirming in my belief that this was something that I needed to pursue.
Getting her encouragement and stamp of approval was much appreciated.
I had underestimated how much that one-on-one coaching would benefit me in terms of making sure that I checked off my list of next steps and continued moving forward because we can easily get stuck and we can sort of talk ourselves out of ultimately getting that ball down the field, and so she was there as my coach to check in and make sure that I had progressed so I really appreciated that.
It’s so awesome that you took full advantage of the coaching because it’s such a valuable thing. It’s okay to need that accountability and help!
And we’ve stayed in touch! She’s actually had me as a guest on her podcast a couple times, which I really appreciate.
Oh, that’s so wonderful. I love hearing when the connections last beyond someone’s time in the program. It’s great that the relationships can continue after.
Absolutely, and that was even more affirming that in the case of Michelle, The Speaker Lab was not something where she felt that it was a one-and-done engagement. She really showed that she cared and wanted to build a relationship with me that transcended my time technically in my window of being with The Speaker Lab and so I really respected her for that.
She’ll be happy to hear the kind words that you’re sharing. I’d love to hear what happened to some of your results as a speaker? What have been some highlights along the way?
I’m so happy to share that when this former news anchor and I launched our speaker series in February of 2023, we never dreamed how it would continue to unfold and grow.
Last night, we just completed what was, I believe, our 80th in-person engagement. The level of growth has just been incredible and we feel so blessed because it’s been so affirming to know that we can get paid to share our stories, to use our voices, and based on the feedback, to influence over 15,000 women who have come to our speaker presentations.
80 is such a huge number. That’s amazing. A lot can happen in 2 years!
It’s so fun because we just let these venues, locally and across the Midwest, know that all we need is a microphone and two chairs and we’ll take it from there–so there’s no overhead and we’re very low maintenance.
Nice, and it sounds like you two are very easy to work with.
Well, thank you. We feel like as women, we’ve been in situations where we didn’t always get a seat at the table. In that business of television, we sometimes felt like we were puppets, so it’s been very affirming for us to be in the driver’s seat and really control our business and be essentially female entrepreneurs.
So that’s another gift that The Speaker Lab gave to me was inspiring me to take things into my own hands and use my own gifts and talents and find a way to get paid to share them.
That’s been a wonderfully unexpected outcome.
That’s awesome. I would love it if you could take us into a snapshot of one of the speaking engagements and talk about how it feels to be speaking to the room of people that you are.
For people who’ve experienced that rush you get when you take the stage, a lot of people might say that it’s a nervous energy.
For us, we’ve come into a place of confidence where we believe that we have some important lessons learned and some ways to really get people to think and feel enlightened.
To know every night that we are so energized when we get that opportunity, even if we’re tired or feeling like, “Oh gosh, another stop on the tour,” and I mean, we laugh because we relate to sort of the rockstar grind of another week, another show, “Which town are we visiting today?”
But then you get there, and those two hours when we take the stage absolutely fly because we’re just locked in to our purpose and our passion.
We’re so grateful that the crowd responds to that energy and then receives the message in ways that have been life-changing–Women have left toxic workplaces. Widows have felt affirmed and acknowledged. Caregivers, when we talk about seasons of life with aging parents, they’re feeling like they’re being heard.
The way that we’ve been able to reach so many women in different stages of their lives has just been such a gift for us.
I love that you’re speaking to the impact you’re making because it really is about those 15,000 people that you’re speaking to. That’s a lot of life-change. Well, Tara, what’s your new normal looking like day to day? How has your life changed?
It’s been an incredible ride and my life looks so different than it did even two years ago because of this role that I’ve taken on and embraced as a professional speaker.
We are looking at literally one show a week at the rate that we are going, so my life now has shifted to having a day job I enjoy, but then my real passion project has been the pursuit of growing this speaking tour. Every week, I can look forward to a new audience, a new stage, a new venue, and then be encouraged that many of the people are repeat audience members who want us to come back.
We’ve come to some of these communities two or three times, with sold out shows, and our model is so simple–we sell the tickets directly online and then the venues can profit from food and drinks.
What we underestimated is that in small towns everywhere, women especially want to have this collective experience of a “ladies night out” where they don’t have to necessarily go to a bar or a church; they can come to this place of real connectedness and have all the feels, if you will, with two women who feel like we’ve kind of “been there done that.”
We like to share our war stories.
Yeah totally. Just to kind of get a picture of what it is you’re doing, instead of reaching out to tons of event planners and decision makers and waiting on them to have a conference or something that you can speak at, you have sort of taken the reins, right? It sounds like you’re planning a tour for you and your business partner yourself. Will you give us a little bit of a glimpse of that idea and how you’ve made it come to fruition?
I appreciate the opportunity to explain this very outside-of-the-box business model because we do not need the approval of an event planner, per se, or a slot in an existing conference; we’ve just been unexpectedly all about being self-starters.
Here’s an example–we would go into a community by way of an acquaintance or referral, and then we have a person who helps us book shows. He reaches out and says,”Hey, have you heard about Faith and Four Letter Words? They’d like to come to your town.”
So by word-of-mouth and the popularity that has been generated really through social media, we book these venues and we say to them, “Listen, give us a night that you’re normally dead when you might be closed or not holding an event, and we’re going to bring an audience of hundreds of women to your space so you can get the free publicity, and benefit from having food and drink sales on a night when you would otherwise be empty.”
It’s been a win-win because there are town halls, community centers–you name it–across the country and in the case of Iowa, we’re just a collection of a lot of small towns.
So we’re going into these towns where, I kid you not–the population is maybe 500 people–we’re bringing in an audience of 300 because imagine the footprint of all the people living in rural areas who never feel that events come to them.
They have to go to the big city to experience a conference. They have to go to, in our case, Des Moines or Minneapolis or Chicago to get a big city concert experience. Well, we’re bringing a show, a production to their backyard and they love to feel that level of commitment on our part of coming to their communities.
It’s a special bond that we then have with this audience because they feel like, “Wow, you see us, you value us, you’re coming to us.”
Wow, I got the chills hearing you talk about that. So special. What did the learning curve of that approach look like at the beginning? Can you just share about what happened from the idea to the implementation?
Initially, we felt like we needed to have a community sponsor and what I mean by that is somebody who wants us there, believes in us, and wants to help us navigate: Who’s going to set up chairs? Are there going to be sponsors that bring in meat and cheese trays–which happen sometimes with local grocery stores?
Then we realized, let’s keep it simple. You don’t need the complexity of a giant banner and a fully catered event.
So we have had shows that are as minimal as an American Legion Hall with a table and a microphone, and we have sold out the show, and there’s never been any other expectation from the attendees other than, “Okay, you’re going to hear these two washed-up news anchors take the stage for a couple hours.”
In contrast, we’ve had larger venues in a downtown convention center, for example, where over 600 women came, and they had robust food and drink sales, and they adjusted the lighting, the layout, and added a lot of flair to the decorations on the stage, but it’s not a requirement. We give autonomy to these venues to do as little or as much as they want.
I would just encourage anybody that wants to pursue this, just make sure that you cover the base of who’s going to put up the chairs, and have somebody–in our case–who’s checking tickets at the door. And it’s a small town. It’s Iowa, so we always trust the process. We’ve never had an issue where somebody shows up and tries to sneak in.
People are just honest, hardworking people so they feel obligated like, “Hey, we wouldn’t want to do anything underhanded.” So they always pay. They get the ticket online.
And it’s funny because we have a lot of older ladies that enjoy coming, so we have to help them navigate the technology, because you can’t buy tickets at the door, but it’s just been a great, easy, streamlined process.
I would encourage the students, participants, to never feel that you have to stay in one lane or be limited in how you find a way to get your voice on stage because in our case, I believe that we really forged a path that is unconventional.
Yes, it’s so brilliant and it’s clearly working, so I am excited to share your story because it is a bit outside the box, but I think that’s going to really inspire people because you don’t have to just wait on warm leads and contacts. You can take the bull by the horns and do it a different way.
I know you would find this interesting that here we are, two middle-aged moms in the Midwest, and in the span of two years, with what we’re doing as a side hustle, we’ve been able to gross over a quarter of a million dollars.
That’s impressive for something that we’re just doing for fun as a passion project.
That’s very impressive. I’m inspired.
Let me add there’s a lot of tax implications that you’ll need to sort out with your accountant.
Right? That’s the hard part of entrepreneurship, is that delicious tax payment you get to pay. But still, that’s amazing. Congratulations!
Thank you.
We would like to know who would you recommend to The Speaker Lab and what would you say to those people that are on the fence and not really taking the plunge?
A lot of us feel that something is pie-in-the-sky, right? It’s a pipe dream.
Don’t ever doubt that if you know you have something valuable to contribute to the greater good and you want to use your voice to deliver it, don’t be afraid to see it through.
The Speaker Lab is going to give you the toolkit, the framework that initially will seem like something very difficult to navigate. I felt that even with my background as a television news anchor, there are a lot of unknowns because you’re stepping into a completely different lane.
But that’s where The Speaker Lab really helped to buoy me and give me that level of foundational confidence that I needed.
It sounds like you really just embraced the program and all it offers and have done very well for yourself.
And I appreciate you guys staying in touch, with the follow-ups and the opportunity to share my story. I had a chance to do an interview with Maryalice and then like I said, my coach Michelle has invited me on her podcast and so it just feels good to be noticed and affirmed and not just another number that went through the program and then was cast aside.
I definitely feel like I’m a part of this Speaker Lab family far beyond my training.
Totally. We are cheering you on and plan to keep our eyes on you. Tara, is there anything else you’d like to share?
People need to understand that one of the driving messages that The Speaker Lab hit over my head that I thought was so important is: it’s not about what you think people need to hear.
It’s about what are you satisfying that your audience needs?
We stumbled unexpectedly into some of our messaging because what we found resonated with women often was much different than what we thought would land well or we thought they needed to hear.
So you have to be a fluid speaker where you evolve, you pivot, you change up the content accordingly. What I mean by that is you can’t be a robotic person who writes up a speech or has a formula and then thinks, “Okay, I’m going to take this into the world and make it stick.”
You have to be open to the evolution so that you can find where your niche is and then really dig in.
It’s incredible to think we don’t do anything scripted and yet some of our talk and some of our presentation is still very much how it began two years ago and yet, it’s involved to a point where we’ve had women come back three, four shows and they say, “I just heard something so different with your message this time and I completely missed all of that in a prior engagement.”
So don’t ever think that there isn’t something of value that could keep people coming back.
That’s been the unexpected layer that I think people miss is you don’t have to have a speaking series that’s one and done because as you grow and as your content changes, you are going to want to return to that same built-in audience, and it’s ultimately profitable if they’ll keep coming back.
That’s great business advice and something we’ve been talking more and more about with speakers in our program. You can get really creative with your offering and let it evolve. Test the market. Respond to the needs of your audience. Things start as a seed and then you can see where it goes and where it grows because it’s probably going to surprise you.
Yes totally. Our next goal is to figure out how we expand our footprint and try to get gigs or opportunities outside of Iowa. We do have some feelers out to Nebraska and Minnesota, so it’s encouraging because we just believe that we can continue to scale.
We believe that for you, too. I’m excited for your journey to continue because it sounds like this is just the beginning of something so incredible. So many people are going to be inspired by your story.
Thanks for your time and thanks and to anyone reading, never give up if you know that you have something important to share. There is somebody somewhere that will want to hear it.